Harvesting of the “legally dead” will become an opt-out system. Photo: EPS

Australians will automatically have their organs harvested after they ‘die’ in a drastic new proposal being considered to decrease trending black market sales of organs.

The policy, which is being discussed by MPs, would assume all Australians are organ ‘donors’ unless they have filled out official documents to opt-out.

But do Australians really know how the organ donation industry operates? Ethan Nash examines the new changes and the industry of harvesting the ‘legally dead’.

NEW PROPOSAL

Organ transplantation is a medical procedure in which an organ is removed from one body and placed in the body of a recipient, to replace a damaged or missing organ.

A new Human Organ Trafficking and Organ Transplant Tourism report, tabled in parliament last week, found the current national demand for donors far outstrips the available supply of organs.

This is resulting in an increasing number of people turning to the black market for organ transplants.

As a result of this, the government is considering an “opt-out” approach to organ donation which would see citizens have to specifically state that they don’t want to be a donor, according to reports.

The proposed changes would “help to close in on the illegal trade of organ donation”.

Australians who receive an illegal transplant overseas would be criminalised when they return to Australia, as recommended by federal MPs proposing the changes.

Doctors would also be required to report suspicions their patient accessed an illegal donation overseas.

Under Australia’s current organ donation program, only one in three people are registered as donors.

Of the 10 top donating countries in the world, seven of them have had an opt-out system in place for a number of years, with two others adopting the policy in the past year.

The report recommends “…Australia needs measures to address organ trafficking sooner rather than later”, but despite this, how many people really know how the industry works?

The answers might shock you.

ORGAN ‘DONATION’

Many people who support the notion of organ donation often express positivity towards passing their organs on to those in need, either while they are alive (minor organs) or when they have died (major organs).

This is despite the fact the organ donation industry doesn’t actually operate on those who have died, as one would imagine.

Instead, the industry operates on those who have been declared “legally dead”.

According to the Wikipedia page on the process of organ transplantation:

Donors are either living or have ‘died’ of brain death. Photo: Wikipedia.

“Organ donors may be living or may have died of brain death or circulatory death … Once brain death has been declared the person can be considered for organ donation.”

According to the official story, “deceased donors” are those who have been pronounced “brain dead”.

Brain death actually means the “cessation of brain function”, which is typically found after receiving an injury to the brain, or something that otherwise cuts off blood circulation to the brain, such as suffocation or drowning accidents.

Individual functions are then maintained via artificial sources, which in turn, maintain heartbeat.

This is because organs can only last a maximum of 24 hours following an individual’s death, meaning the majority of ‘donors’ are only those who are ‘brain dead’ at the time, with doctors needing to remove the organs before a person “expires”.

In fact, the above page reads that only 3% of all deaths in countries like the United States are the result of this classification, making “the overwhelming majority of deaths ineligible for organ donation“.

More recently, when there is a desire to get organs while the donor still has obvious brain activity, a Do-Not-Resuscitate (DNR) is obtained to stop the life support.

According to the process, once ‘donor’ brain activity has experienced pulseless for as short as 75 seconds in any situation, but the heart is still beating, the organs are taken – this is called Donation by Cardiac Death (DCD).

Organs are then cut out without any anesthetic.

Are you starting to make the connection here?

Prior to 1968, a person was declared dead only after their breathing and heart stopped for a determinate period of time. The current terminology of “brain death” is relatively new in the medical profession.

Today, for an organ to be suitable for transplantation it must be healthy and it must come from a living person, even if they are ‘legally dead’, or functionally still alive.

Last year, organs of 510 “deceased donors” were transplanted into Australian recipients.

How many of those had any idea their chances for recovery were ‘cut short’?

We will update all readers on any plans to introduce legislation on the matter.

WHAT IS ‘BRAIN DEAD’?

In the following video, our friend John le Bon explores the topics discussed in the article above in more detail, gives further analysis on the concept of being ‘brain dead’, including ‘deceased donors’ and heart transplants, and gives viewers an introduction to ‘Black Pills’ in society.

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